by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

J.J. Abrams, the gifted pop-culture mastermind behind the Star Trekbig-screen revival, casts Trek's Karl Urban as a Six Million Dollar-esque future cop reluctantly teamed with an unusually emotional android (Michael Ealy). The show could develop into one of the season's better bets â?? once you get past a pilot that is uncomfortably close to the big-screen version of I, Robot.

We are not amused. At least not by this tired, misanthropic comedy about three divorced men (Tony Shalhoub, Kal Penn and Jerry O'Connell) mentoring a just-dumped younger guy (Chris Smith) in a short-term apartment complex. If there's any justice, "short-term" should be the operative word here.

No show ever provokes a unanimous reaction from TV critics â?? but if any comes close this season, it's this much-reviled live-action misstep from Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane. Bad taste we can forgive; boorishness, not so much.

Here's some basic TV advice: Don't call this Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals when there's absolutely nothing in it to justify that name.

Lucky 7ABC, 10 ET/PT (Sept. 24)

Do you remember Windfall, the NBC flop about a group of still-unhappy lottery winners that aired briefly back in 2006? No, I didn't think so â?? which makes you wonder why ABC would revive the idea with this remake of a British series.

Maggie Lawson stars in this promising sitcom as a divorced mom with a klutzy young son who moves her family back in with her father, a baseball-obsessed ex-athlete played by the great James Caan. There's nothing particularly new here, but the show's mix of tart and sweet, not to mention its stars, may be enough to make up for its familiarity.

Super Fun NightABC, 9:30 ET/PT (Oct. 2)

Rebel Wilson was born to join the ranks of TV's biggest stars. The only question is whether this chaotic sitcom is the best vehicle to get her there. Wilson certainly gives it her all, but too often, her all either isn't enough or proves too much. Still, in a relatively bland season, Wilson is most certainly anything but, and that's reason enough to give Fun a shot.

Whatever this show was like in its original British incarnation, the American version boils down to pretty teenagers angsting about their super powers. Need I tell you this is on CW? Need I add that most adults should avoid it, which is no doubt what they were already intending to do?

Why revive a '60s series most young people have never heard of, and then trash it, guaranteeing that the adults who fondly remember the original will hate your superfluous remake? Blair Underwood is wasted here as the wheelchair-bound head of a handpicked group of rule-breaking cops who will do anything to punish the guilty, including trampling on the rights of the innocent. And here we thought that kind of vigilante nonsense went out with, well, Ironside.

Alice in Wonderland steps in for Snow White at the center of this unpreviewed Once Upon a Time spinoff. But don't worry -- Alice won't be wandering Wonderland alone. As with the original series, various characters from other, unrelated Disney movies will pop in.

The ancient but reliable Abie's Irish Rose plot gets reworked yet again, this time for two teenagers.. It's old stuff, but it's fairly well-handled, particularly by the four pros playing the parents: Mike O'Malley, Mary McCormack, Ricardo Chavira and Justina Machado.

Robin Williams returns to TV in this comedy from the usually dramatic David E. Kelley. Together, they've been able to attract one of the best ensembles on TV, a group that includes Sarah Michelle Gellar (playing Williams' daughter), James Wolk, Amanda Setton and Hamish Linklater. That's a lot of talent for one show; now the show needs to be less crazy and more funny.

Will & Grace's Sean Hayes is back as a gay dad with a lovingly caustic mother (sitcom great Linda Lavin). Unfortunately, he's pressing harder than the script can support, and despite his natural appeal, the effort is wearing. As Al Gore might tell him, the best way to save the world is to conserve a little energy.

Having apparently exhausted the supply of vapid present-day characters, CW reaches back in history for the story of Mary, Queen of Scots. Or not, considering Reign has as much interest in the real Mary as CW has in quality drama.

FRIDAY

DraculaNBC, 10 ET/PT (Oct. 25)

And then there is the oddball insanity that is Dracula. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as the literary world's most famous vampire, who in this version is pretending to be an American inventor in 19th-century London, all the better to get his revenge on an ancient cult of evil oil barons.